the legs of the bird, his hands being well covered with gloves; and immediately his comrades, who are concealed at a distance, run in, and assist to secure the depredator, by falling on him with sticks till they have killed him.

3. V. harpyia. See FALCO.

4. V. oricou, a species discovered by M. Vaillant at Orange River, South Africa. It is above three feet high, and eight or nine in breadth between the tips of the wings. Its feathers, the general hue of which is a light brown, are on the breast, belly, and sides, of unequal lengths, curved like the blade of a sabre, and bristle up distinct from each other. The feathers, thus separated, would disclose to view the naked skin on the breast, if it were not completely covered with a very thick and beautiful white down, which is easily seen between the ruffled plumage. A celebrated naturalist says, 'that no bird has eye-lashes or eye-brows, or hair round the eyes, like that in quadrupeds'; but this is a mistake. Not only the oricou has this peculiarity, but many other species; such as all the culaos, the secretary (see FALCO) and several other birds of prey. Besides these eye-lashes, the oricou has stiff black hairs on its throat. All the head and part of the neck are bare; and the naked skin, which is reddish, is variegated with blue, violet, and white. The ear in its external circumference is bounded by a prominent skin, which forms a sort of rounded couch, prolonged for some inches down the neck, that must heighten the faculty of hearing.' 'Its strength,' says Vaillant, must be great, if we judge from its muscles and sinews,' and he thinks it is the strongest of birds, not excepting the famous condor. 5. V. perenopterus, the Egyptian vulture. The appearance of this bird is as horrid as can well be imagined, viz. the face is naked and wrinkled; the eyes are large and black: the beak black and hooked; the talons large, and extending ready for prey; and the whole body polluted with filth; these are qualities enough to make the beholder shudder with horror. Notwithstanding this, the inhabitants of Egypt cannot be enough thankful to Providence for this bird. All the places round Cairo are filled with the dead bodies of asses and camels; and thousands of these birds fly about and devour the carcases before they putrefy and fill the air with noxious exhalations. The inhabitants of Egypt, and after them Maillet in his description of Egypt, say, that they yearly follow the caravan to Mecca, and devour the filth of the slaughtered beasts, and the carcases of the camels which die on the journey. They do not fly high, nor are they afraid of men. If one of them is killed, all the rest surround him in the same manner as do the royston crows; they do not quit the places they frequent though frightened by the explosion of a gun, but immediately return. Maillet imagines this bird to be the ibis of the ancients; but it is scarcely to be imagined that a wise nation should pay such honors to an unclean, impure, and rapacious bird which was not perhaps so common before the Egyptians filled the streets with carcases. If the ibis is to be found, it must certainly be looked for in the order of grallæ of Linné; and we imagine it to be the white stork (ardea ciconia), which is so common in Egypt. The Arabians call it rochæme; the French, when in Egypt, gave it the name of chapon de Pharaon, or de Mahometh. See SOUDAN.

6. V. sagittarius, or secretary, is a most singular species, being particularly remarkable from the

great length of its legs; which at first sight would induce one to think it belonged to waders: but the characters of the vulture are so strongly marked throughout, as to leave no doubt to which class it belongs. The bird, when standing erect, is full three feet from the top of the head to the ground. The bill is black, sharp, and crooked, like that of an eagle; the head, neck, breast, and upper parts of the body, are of a bluish ash color: the legs are very long, stouter than those of a heron, and of a brown color; claws shortish, but crooked, not very sharp, and of a black color; from the hindhead springs a number of long feathers, which hang loose behind, like a pendent crest; these feathers arise by pairs, and are longer as they are lower down on the neck; this crest the bird can erect or depress at pleasure; it is of a dark color, almost black; the webs are equal on both sides, and rather curled; and the feathers, when erected, somewhat incline towards the neck; the two middle feathers of the tail twice as long as any of the rest. This singular species inhabits the internal parts of Africa, and is frequently seen at the Cape of Good Hope. It is also met with in the Philippine islands. As to the manners of this bird, it is on all hands allowed that it principally feeds on rats, lizards, snakes, and the like; and that it will become familiar: whence Sonnerat is of opinion, that it might be made useful in some of our colonies, if encouraged, towards the destruction of those pests. They call it at the Cape of Good Hope flangeater, i. e. snake eater. A great peculiarity belongs to it perhaps observed in no other; which is, the faculty of striking forwards with its legs, never backwards. Dr. Solander has seen one of these birds take up a snake, small tortoise, or such like, in its claws; when dashing it thence against the ground with great violence, if the victim was not killed at first, it repeated the operation till that end was answered; after which it ate it up quietly. Dr. J. R. Forster mentioned a further circumstance, which he says was supposed to be peculiar to this bird; that should it by any accident break the leg, the bone would never unite again.

7. V. Serpentarius. See FALCO.

VULTURE, n. s. Lat. vultur. A large bird of prey, remarkable for voracity.

Nor the night raven that still deadly yells, Nor griesly vultures, make us once affeared. Spenser. We've willing dames enough; there cannot be That vulture in you to devour so many As will to greatness dedicate themselves. Shakspeare. A ravenous vulture in his opened side Her crooked beak and cruel talons tried. Dryden. U'VULA, n. s. Lat. uvula. In anatomy, a round soft spongeous body, suspended from the palate, over the glottis.

By an instrument bended up at one end, I got up behind the uvula. Wiseman's Surgery. UVULAR GLANDS. See ANATOMY. UVULARIA, in botany, Pennsylvanian Solomon's seal, a genus of plants, in the class of hexandria, and order of monogynia; and, according to the na tural method, ranking in the eleventh order, sarmentosæ. It is a native of Pennsylvania. The characters of this genus are, that they have but one style and six petals, and are naked, i. e. without any calyx.

UXBRIDGE, a market-town and chapelry in Hillingdon parish, Elthorne hundred, Middlesex, fifteen miles west of London, consists of one street,

nearly a mile in length; the river Coln runs in two streams at the west end, having a new stone bridge over the main branch; that part of the town, in the liberties of the township of Hillingdon, still remains unpaved, but the rest is paved and lighted by virtue of a late act. The church, or chapel of ease, is a good building, and was erected in the reign of Henry VI.; near it is a very commodious market-house. The church-yard lies at some distance from the church. In a parallel line with the river, running from south to north, passes the Grand Junction Canal, from the Thames at New Brentford, on its way to join the Braunston and other canals, in the midland and northern counties. Near the canal is an ancient building called the Treaty House, from its being the place where the commissioners of Charles I. and the parliament met in 1644. The town is governed by a high constable, two constables, and four headboroughs. During the summer season, a passage boat arrives daily, by the canal from Paddington, about two o'clock, and returns the same evening. Uxbridge is principally noted for its very great corn market, and for its opulent mealmen, and gives the title of earl to the family of Paget. Fairs, March 25th, July 31st, September 29th, and October 11th. Market Thursday.

UX'ORIOUS, adj. Latin uxorius. SubmisUXO'RIOUSLY, adv. S sively fond of a wife; infected with connubial dotage: the adverb corresponding.

That uxorious king, whose heart, though large,

UZ, or Urz, the country and place of residence of Job. In the genealogy of the patriarchs there are three persons called Uz, either of which might give this district its name. The first was the grandson of Sem, by his son Aram (Gen. xxii. 23), who, according to Josephus, occupied the Trachonitis, and Damascus, to the north of Palestine: but Job was among the sons of the east. Another Uz was the son of Nahor, Abraham's brother (Gen. x. 21), who appears to have removed, after passing the Euphrates, from Haran of Mesopotamia, to Arabia Deserta. The third Uz was a Horite, from mount Seir (Gen. xxxvi. 28), and thus not of Eber's posterity. Now the question is, from which of these Job's country, Uz, took its name? Not from the first, as is already shown; nor from the second, because his country is always called Seir, or Edom, never Uz; and then called a south, not an east, country in Scripture. It therefore remains that we look for the country and place of residence of Job in Arabia Deserta; for which there were very probable reasons. The plunderers of Job are called Chaldeans and Sabeans, next neighbours to him. These Sabeans came not from Arabia Felix, but from a nearer Sabe in Arabia Deserta (Ptolemy); and his friends, except Eliphaz the Temanite, were of Arabia Deserta. See JOB.

W, or w, is the twenty-first letter of our alphabet; and is composed, as its name implies, of two

v's.

It was not in use among the Hebrews, Greeks, or Romans; but chiefly peculiar to the northern nations, the Teutones, the Saxons, Britons, &c. But still it is not used by the French, Italians, Spaniards, or Portuguese, except in proper names, and other terms borrowed from languages in which it is originally used, and even then it is sounded like the single v. This letter is of an ambiguous nature; being a consonant at the beginning of words, and a vowel at the end. It may stand before all the vowels except u as water, wedge, winter, wonder it may also follow the vowels a, e, , and unites with them into a kind of double vowel, or diphthong; as in saw, few, cow, &c. It also goes before r, and follows s and th; as in wrath, swear, thwart; it goes before h also, though in reality it is sounded after it; as in when, what, &c. In some words it is obscure, as in shadow, widow, &c.

:

WAB'BLE, or Teut. wabelen; Belg. wagWADDLE, v. n. ghelen, to waggle; whence, by corruption, wabble and waddle. To shake in walking from side to side; to deviate in motion from a right line.

She could have run and waddled all about. Shaksp. The strutting petticoat smooths and levels all distinctions; while I cannot but be troubled to see so many well-shaped innocent virgins bloated up, and waddling up and down, like big-bellied women. Spectator.

Obliquely waddling to the mark in view. Pope. She drawls her words, and waddles in her pace; Unwasht her hands, and much besnuft her face.

Young. side of the flat inclines to the right or left hand, with soft blows of an hammer set it to rights.

If in your work you find it wabble; that is that one

Moxon.

WACHENDORFIA, in botany, a genus of plants, in the class of triandria, and order of monogynia; ranking according to the natural method in the sixth order, ensatæ. The plants of this genus have one style and three stamina; with spathaceous flowers, and a trilocular and superior capsule. The corolla is hexapetalous, unequal, and situated below the germen. There are four species, all foreign plants.

WADD, or WADDING, is a stopple of paper, hay, straw, or the like, forced into a gun upon the powder to keep it close in the chamber; or to put up close to the shot, to keep it from rolling out. WADD, BLACK. See MANGANESE.

WADDAHS, a savage people in Ceylon. They live by themselves, and neither till the ground nor breed cattle; but subsist entirely by hunting with bows and arrows; except that they collect wild honey. They have no houses, and are quite naked, except a piece of cloth which they wrap round their waist. They sleep under large trees, on the banks of rivers. A few of them have a sort of tem

I have waded through the whole cause, searching the truth by the causes of truth. Hooker.

We'll wade to the market-place in Frenchmen's

blood.

Shakspeare. "Tis not to my purpose to wade into those bottomless controversies, which, like a gulph, have swallowed up so much time of learned men. Decay of Piety.

With head, hands, wings, or feet pursues his way, And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies. Mil. It is hard to wade deep in baths where springs arise. Browne.

Simonides, the more he contemplated the nature of the Deity, found that he waded but the more out of his depth, and that he lost himself in the thought. Addis. WADING (Peter), a learned Irish Jesuit, born at Waterford in 1586. He joined the Society at Tournay, in 1601. He was made chancellor of the universities of Prague and Gratz. He wrote Tractatus Adversus Hæreticos, and Carmina Varia. He lived long in Bohemia, and died at Gratz, in

1644.

WADSWORTH (Thomas), a nonconformist divine, born in Southwark, in the seventeenth century, and educated at Christ's college Cambridge. He became minister of Newington Butts, and of Laurence Pountney church London; and from his Diary, printed at the end of his Life, appears to have been a good man, and an exemplary pastor: yet he was deprived of his living in 1662. He published several Sermons, and a work On the Immortality of the Soul.

WA'FER, n. s. Belg. wafel. A thin cake. Wife, make us a dinner; spare flesh, neither corn; Make wafers and cakes, for our sheepe must be shorne.

Tusser.

That the same body of Christ should be in a thousand places at once; that the whole body should lie hid in a little thin wafer, yet so that the members thereof should not one run into another, but continue distinct, and have an order agreeable to a man's body, it doth exceed reason. WAFER, in the eucharist. See TRANSUBSTANTI

ATION.

Hall.

WAFERS, OF SEALING WAFERS, are made thus: -Take very fine flour, mix it with glair of eggs; isinglass, and a little yeast; mingle the materials, beat them well together; spread the batter, being made thin with gum-water, on even tin plates, and dry them on a stove; then cut them out for use. They may be made of any color, by tinging the paste with brazil or vermilion for red; indigo or verditer, &c., for blue; saffron, turmerics, or gamboge, &c., for yellow.

WAFT', v. a., v. n., & WAFT'AGE, n. s. [n. s. WAFT'URE.

Pret. wafted, or perhaps waft; part. pass.

wafted or waft. Probably from wave. To carry or float through the air or on water; to buoy: to float: also a floating body waftage is carriage by water or in the air: wafture the act of waving.

That what before she but surmised, was true. Dryden.
It wafted nearer yet, and then she knew,
In vain you tell your parting lover,
You wish fair winds may waft him over:
Alas! what winds can happy prove,
That bear me far from what I love?
From the bellowing east oft the whirlwind's wing
Sweeps up the burthen of whole wintry plains,
In one wide waft.

:

Prior.

Thomson.

WAG, v. a., v. N., &) Sax. pagian; Teutonic WAG'GLE, v. n. [n. s. | wagen; Belg. waggen. To WAGGERY, n. s. move lightly, or shake WAG'GISH, adj. slightly be in quick vaWAG'GISHLY, adv. cillating motion; be moved WAG'GISHNESS, n. s. ̧ in this way a wag is a droll or merry fellow to waggle is to waddle; move from side to side: waggery and waggishness, trick; drollery; mischievous merriment: the adjec tive and adverb correspond.

All that pass hiss and wag their heads at thee.

Lamentations, ii. 15. The sport Basilius would shew to Zelmane, was the mounting of his hawk at a heron, which, getting up on his waggling wings with pain, was now grown to diminish the sight of himself. Sidney.

Bacon.

Cupid the wag, that lately conquered had Wise counsellors, stout captains puissant ; And tied them fast to lead his triumphs bad, Glutted with them, now plays with meanest things. Id. I will provoke him to 't, or let him wag. Shaksp. Was not my lord the verier wag o' th' two? Id. A Christian boy in Constantinople had like to have been stoned for gagging, in a waggishness, a long billed fowl. This new conceit is the waggish suggestion of some sly and skulking atheists. More's Divine Dial. Thou can'st not wag thy finger, or begin The least light motion, but it tends to sin. We wink at wags when they offend, And spare the boy, in hopes the man may mend. Ia. Why do you go nodding and waggling so, as if hipshot? says the goose to her gosseling. L'Estrange. 'Tis not the waggeries or cheats practised among school-boys, that make an able man; but the princi ples of justice, generosity, and sobriety. Locke

Dryden.

A counsellor never pleaded without a piece of packthread in his hand, which he used to twist about a finger, all the while he was speaking: the wags used to call it the thread of his discourse. Addison.

Goth.

WAGE, n. s. & v. a. The plural wages is WAG'ER, n. s. now only used. and Sax. wed; Swed. wada; Germ. wegen or wagen; Fr. gages. Pledge; stake; engagement; pay given for service: hence to engage; attempt; venture; set or take to hire a wager is a stake; be't; any thing pledged on a chance; the subject of betts; legal pledge.

The sea strove with the winds which should be

louder; and the shrouds of the ship, with a ghastfu! noise, to them that were in it witnessed that their ruin was the wager of the other's contention. Sidney.

Full fast she fled, ne ever looked behind; As if her life upon the wager lay.

WAGENSEIL (John Christopher), LL. D., a learned German, born at Nuremberg, in 1633. He graduated at Orleans, after which he became professor of law and history at Altorf, and next of Oriental languages. He wrote, 1. De urbe Norimbergæ; 4to. 2. Pera Librorum Juvenilium, 12mo. 3. Tela ignea Satanæ : 2. tom. 4to. He died in 1705.

WAGER OF BATTLE. See BATTEL. By stat. 59 Geo. III. c. 46, this mode of trial is abolished in writs of right: the same act abolishes all appeals of murder, treason, felony, or other offences; and, consequently, the trial by battel in those cases: which is therefore thus completely put an end to, after much ingenious research and controversy on the subject.

WAGER OF LAW (Vadiatio Legis), so called, because the defendant puts in sureties, vadios, that at such a day he will make his law, that is, take the benefit which the law has allowed him.-3 Comm. c. 22; 1 Inst. 295. This takes place where an action of debt is brought against a man upon a simple contract between the parties, without deed or record: and the defendant swears in court, in the presence of eleven compurgators, that he oweth the plaintiff nothing, in manner and form as he hath declared; the reason of this waging of law is, because the defendant might have paid the plaintiff his debt in private, or before witnesses who may be all dead, and therefore the law allows him to wage his law in his discharge; and his oath shall rather be accepted to discharge himself, than the law will suffer him to be charged upon the bare allegation of the plaintiff.-2 Inst. 45. Wager of law is used in actions of debt without specialty; and also in action of detinue, for goods or chattels lent or left with the defendant, who may swear on a book that he detaineth not the goods in manner as the plaintiff has declared; and his compurgators (who must, in all cases, as it seems now, be eleven in number), swear that they believe his oath to be true.-3 Comm. c. 22.

WAGERS. A wager is frequently the disguise of an illegal transaction: and all wagers are void, if they

are of such a nature that they might have an illegal tendency, although they are not accompanied by an illegal intention in the particular instance: as a wager between two voters respecting the event of an election. In general, a wager may be considered as legal, if it be not an incitement to a breach of the peace, or to immorality; or if it do not affect the feelings or interest of a third person, or expose him to ridicule; or if it be not against sound policy. But as wagers, though admitted to be legal in general under the restrictions before alluded to, are yet much discountenanced by the courts of justice, the cases decided respecting them will not always furnish a ground of analogy for the exposition of other subjects.

A waggoner took notice, upon the creaking of a wheel, that it was the worst wheel that made most noise. L'Estrange.

A WAGGON is a wheel carriage, of which there are various forms, accommodated to the different uses they are intended for. The common waggon consists of the shafts or rods, being the two pieces which the hind horse bears up; the welds; the slotes or cross pieces, which hold the shafts together; the bolster, being that part on which the forewheels and the axle-tree turn in wheeling the waggon across the road; the chest or body of the waggon, having the staves or rails fixed thereon; the bales, or hoops which compose the top; the tilt, the place covered with cloth, at the end of the waggon.

WAGNER (John James), a physician of Switzerland, born in 1641. He wrote Historia Naturalis Helvetia curiosæ; 12mo. He became librarian of Zurich, and died in 1695, aged only fiftyfour.

WAGSTAFFE (Thomas), M. A., a learned divine born in Warwickshire in 1645, and educated at the Charter-house in London, whence he removed to New Inn Hall, Oxford, where he graduated. He became chancellor of Lichfield cathedral, and rector of St. Margaret, London; but was ejected at the revolution for refusing the oaths. In 1693 he was made a nonjuring bishop. He practised physic, and published some Sermons, and an able defence of Charles I. as the author of Eurov Baoiλien. He died in 1702.

WAHABEES, WAHABIES, or WEHHABIS, a formidable body of warlike sectaries, who sprung up in Arabia, about a century ago, commencing their career as reformers of the Mahometan religion. According to Niebuhr, the founder of this sect was Abd ul Wehhab (Abdoulwehhbah, or Ubdool Wahab), a native of Aijæne (Ujuna), a town in El A